Why our food and farming system is broken

Food is life. Food is happiness. Food is love. Our relationship with it is universal, primal, historic, rich in tradition and pride. But right now, most of us do not know where our food comes from. A greedy elite are industrialising, commodifying and controlling every aspect of our food system -- from genome to grocery store. They are growing our food on huge monoculture farms, spraying genetically modified crops with obscene amounts of chemicals and feeding these crops to factory-farmed animals.

The result is a broken system: soils drained of nutrients, poisoned waterways and the destruction of a precious diversity of crop varieties that have enabled human societies to thrive from the mountains to the coast for millennia. At the other end of the food chain, urban consumers – especially the poor – have little choice but to buy pre-packaged food built devoid of nutrition.

Did you know:

6 Big Ag giants control nearly 70 percent of the world's seed market, much of which has been genetically-modified so they can reap profits on every seed they sell

4 global corporations control 75% of all global grain trade

Top 10 global food processing companies control 26% of the global food markets

Animal livestock (beef, chicken, etc.) -- mostly grown on industrial factory farms -- is responsible for 14 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust of all motor vehicles worldwide?

It’s time to transform our broken food system

But a growing food movement is starting to brew around the world. More people are demanding to know where their food is coming from. Farmers and communities are reclaiming control over the seeds of life, and their right to self-determination through the food they grow and eat. A number of far-sighted corporations are looking to meet the evolving demands of the consumers they serve with a food system that matches this growing shift in consciousness.

Greenpeace’s food campaign is here to support the global food movement based on "ecological farming" -- where most of our food is grown ecologically, and farmers together with consumers reject toxic pesticides, chemical fertilizers and GMO seeds. It’s a future where people from all walks of life work together to build a system that is best for their families, farmers, and for the planet.

But we need all of us to act if we’re going to make a dent. Help jumpstart an eco-food revolution by sharing this page. Then click to see What We Can All Do now.

The latest updates

Greenpeace China's campaign to push one of China's biggest retailers to purge pesticides triggered food safety reform across the whole of Shanghai. Now we're fighting to take it nationwide.
Dried flowers of the Sanqi plant
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Last weekend (14-16 October, 2016), farmers, scientists and activists from all over the world gathered at the Monsanto Tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands, to present the case against destruction caused by one of the corporate giants...

A symbolic trial being held in The Hague, Netherlands this week could shape the future of the food we eat. Agrochemical giant, Monsanto, faces people who have suffered from the corporation's approach to agriculture. Communities...

Across vast tracts of the Philippines, farmers are adapting their farming methods to withstand climate change. They're producing food in times of drought and typhoons through resilient forms of ecological agriculture. Meanwhile some...

Manila, 30 June 2016 - A number of Nobel laureates have recently signed a letter calling on Greenpeace to review its position on genetically engineered ‘Golden’ rice. In response, Wilhelmina Pelegrina, Campaigner at Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said: